There will be two chances to see the award-winning Karine Polwart on stage at Hatfield’s Folk by the Oak music festival this summer.
Already a member of The Lost Words - Spell Songs project, Karine Polwart will also perform a solo set in Hatfield Park.
Folk by the Oak 2019 takes place in the grounds of Hatfield House on Sunday, July 14 – the day after the annual Battle Proms classical concert.
Songwriter, musician, theatre maker and author Karine is a six-time winner at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards, including 2018 Folk Singer of the Year.
Her summer appearance on the FBTO main stage will be her first at the festival for 10 years.
For those unfamiliar with her work, in October 2018 she released her seventh album, Laws of Motion, the critically acclaimed follow-up to 2017’s much-praised A Pocket of Wind Resistance.
Her much-anticipated Scottish Songbook, celebrating 50 years of Scottish pop and revealing yet another dimension to her artistry, is released in August.
FBTO festival organisers told Welwyn Hatfield Times: “Karine Polwart is an artist of such exceptional calibre that we can barely believe our luck, as we get to enjoy her in two very different guises this summer.
“Recently we have been honoured to work closely with Karine on our latest commission, The Lost Words - Spell Songs.
“Bearing witness to her incredible abilities made us even more determined to give our Main Stage over to Karine for a solo set, before she joins the other ‘Spell Singers’ on stage later in the day.”
The Lost Words – Spell Songs also features Julie Fowlis, Kris Drever and Seckou Keita, who opened the festival last year, among other folk luminaries, and was created as a musical companion piece to The Lost Words – A Spell Book by Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris.
The book, a ‘beautiful protest’ created in response to the loss of common nature words from a popular children’s dictionary, has stirred such a response that there are now crowdfunding campaigns around the UK aiming to put a copy in each and every primary school.
The Lost Words – Spell Songs has been given an equally warm reception, selling out venues around the UK during a recent tour.
The gathering together of the ‘Spell Singers’ at Folk by the Oak will be an exclusive festival performance this summer.
The other musicians involved in the project are Kerry Andrew, Rachel Newton, Beth Porter and Jim Molyneux.
There will also be a unique and exciting opportunity to hear the authors of The Lost Words talk about their book, on Folk by the Oak’s second stage, the Acorn Stage.
Robert Macfarlane is the author of bestselling and prize-winning books, including The Wild Places, The Old Ways, Holloway and Landmarks.
He will be talking with his co-collaborator Jackie Morris, an artist and illustrator with a huge international following, about the original book and how it has grown beyond all expectations and bloomed into a musical project.
Headlining Folk by the Oak this year is Frank Turner, whose set with The Sleeping Souls promises the Turner at his best.
The folk-punk troubadour will incorporate some of his most notable tracks with material from his latest album Be More Kind into his FBTO set.
Also on the Main Stage is Hertfordshire trio The Staves, who hail from nearby Watford, and festival favourite Seth Lakeman, who recently returned from touring the US with Robert Plant.
Adult tickets cost £38 if booked by March 31.
• For more line-up and festival information go to www.folkbytheoak.com
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